the one who tried to fly away
by The Blue Winged Angel
Summary: WE ARE NOBLE WE ARE WISE YOU WILL FOLLOW US OR MEET YOUR DEMISE


**A/N: Welcome to the dark one-shot for my BIG FAT UPDATE! I don't really flesh out the world a lot; it's mostly about the horror and tragedy. I, however, plan on making this a series of one-shots eventually that would chronicle this world and explain the various things Flightpaw doesn't get to see.**

**Also: Rated T for very dark themes and a torture scene. Please don't read if you're sensitive to these things. Sorry I didn't say that in the summary but I didn't want to ruin the effect of it...**

For generations the cats of the Clans have followed the charade, played the game, done whatever they were told in fear. They knew there was no other option.

For generations the story was told, over and over again, of how StarClan was right and the Dark Forest was wrong, how cats that did what they were told were rewarded and how those who protested were... not. Always, it was a battle between 'good' and 'evil'. Firestar, their most loyal follower, versus Tigerstar, the one who spoke out the most. Bluestar, a StarClan-loving cat, versus Thistleclaw, who did not follow the instructions. Brambleclaw, a cat who followed the prophecies, versus Hawkfrost, who dared to support his father. On and on the list goes.

They _must _have control. The charade amuses them. But that is only one of the reasons.

…

On the Clans' side, they are always terrified. They know, they know that when they die they will join the terrible, violent Dark Forest, which they only know from stories, or the shining ranks of StarClan. They aren't sure which is worse.

Over the years the control has increased. Now they are fed lines, made to go about their day-to-day lives so specifically.

Some know that the stories are but propaganda, but most know that that is not true. Most know that StarClan might not be as perfect as they are told it is (although the never say it aloud), but the Dark Forest is certainly, certainly worse. Tigerstar kills half-breeds, Mapleshade eats kits, Brokenstar forces kittens to fight in battle, and Hawkfrost seduces cats into joining them.

…

Flightkit is only two moons old when she has the dream.

"Soon the Clans must all take flight, for the upheaval comes," a tall, ginger tom says. Flightkit is certain he is Firestar. He asks her to follow the Prophecy.

In the stories when cats have dreams they usually agree to follow the instructions. Flightkit, instead, asks "Why?"

Firestar's expression instantly sours. "Because it is a Prophecy that StarClan has seen," he tells her. "You _must_ follow it."

Flightkit knows she's supposed to ask what it means.

She asks.

Firestar smiles, clearly happy that the dream is back on track. He begins to fade. "Just follow the Prophecy, Flightkit," he calls as the little kit wakes up.

Flightkit finds herself in the nursery in the dead of night, feeling slightly unnerved.

…

Firestar and Bluestar peer into the watching pool together. "That will be strike one for her," Bluestar comments.

"But I'm sure she'll get the message after a warning or two. If not, we can simply have the warriors give her a slightly stronger one," Firestar says.

Bluestar nods. "Indeed. Clever thinking, Firestar. And if she ignores that, it will only be a matter of convincing her to follow us," she says.

"Of course," he agrees. "I'm sure then she will know we are serious. Come; let us speak to Brambleclaw about the Plan."

"Certainly," Bluestar says.

And off they go.

…

After four moons of mostly following the instructions, and wondering, for the most part, what StarClan meant by their Prophecy, Flightkit gets to become an apprentice. Her ceremony is not memorable; she receives a tom named Poolheart for her mentor. It seems like a RiverClannish name for a ThunderClan cat, but she doesn't question it. On their first training day, he takes her to the training hollow.

"Flightpaw," he says, "is there anything you want to tell me before we begin?"

The newly named Flightpaw shakes her head.

His brows shoot up. "Are you _certain_?" Poolheart says.

Flightpaw _is_ certain that she detects a threat in his voice. She knows she's supposed to tell him about the Prophecy.

"No, can we start training now?" she says instead.

He stares at her.

"Wow... a Prophecy. I can't believe it, Flightpaw; you must be one of StarClan's specials!" Poolheart says loudly, ignoring the fact that she did not follow the instructions.

"I didn't say anything about a Prophecy," Flightpaw says evenly.

Poolheart stares for another moment, then sighs. "Listen," he whispers quickly. "We always get a few apprentices trickling through who don't know the rules yet. You have to follow the instructions StarClan gives you. You have to follow their story, play their game."

"Why?" Flightpaw challenges.

"If we talk about this any longer we'll get caught," he says in the same tone. Then he straightens up, starts talking louder and slower. "I wonder what the upheaval is..."

Flightkit stares at him for a moment. Is he really going to go on with StarClan's charade?

She feels their voices whispering to her... telling her to say she doesn't know.

"I don't know," she says slowly.

Poolheart smiles widely; he looks relieved. "Well... perhaps we had better teach you how to defend yourself then," he says. "Let's begin with the belly rake..."

…

A moon later, Flightpaw wakes up in StarClan. She knows some cat there most likely wishes to speak with her, and that she's supposed to wait for them, but instead she gets up and begins to walk about. The sun wiggles in the sky, adjusting itself to her favorite time of day. Mice, her favorite food, scamper about practically trying to be caught.

Her thoughts are cut off by a cat behind her asking, "Flightpaw?"

She turns. It's a reddish she-cat with a ShadowClan scent but also traces of the wild, windy scent of rogues. Russetfur, perhaps?

"How are you here? I thought that they were giving you a nonsense dream," Russetfur says.

Flightpaw frowns at her, confused.

"Listen. Forget this happened. I'll fix it," Russetfur says.

At once, Flightpaw is plunged into darkness.

"Free... free us," a she-cat's voice cries. "We've been trapped here for so long..."

"Free us, please," a tom's voice says. "It's a bloodbath. No... they're coming now..."

"Please," a different tom's voice chokes, though through tears or something else Flightpaw cannot tell. "Please let us go. We can't... we can't hold on much longer..."

Russetfur's voice plunges through the darkness. "No... no that isn't right, either..." she murmurs. And all at once Flightpaw finds herself in a nonsensical land, where she rides on the backs of birds and fights off invaders from far away.

…

When Flightpaw is ten moons old, something similar happens.

She sticks to the instructions now, ad-libbing a line or action now and again. But she doesn't want to be punished... she feels that those voices, they were a warning to her not to speak out. However confused Russetfur acted when it happened, Flightpaw is sure it is either an act or she was simply out of the loop.

Either way, at ten moons she wakes up on StarClan soil again.

Once again, it becomes her favorite time of day; mice run up to her happily squealing. Flightpaw ignores them. She starts walking about. She knows it's dangerous but she wants to figure out what's going on. She _has _to.

After wandering about for a very long time, she comes to the entrances of two caves. Flightpaw enters the lighter-looking one, knowing it'll be easier to fight and maneuver when she can see, if need be.

There are pictures on the walls.

The first depicts cats playing on the ground; from the sky, a mass of black watches them.

In the next, the blackness surrounds the cats like a fog. Those who seemed the happiest in the first picture are suddenly evil-looking, depicted with red eyes and long claws.

The fog goes up into the sky, and with it are kits. The cats on the ground below seem suddenly bored and emotionless, except the generically evil ones, who leap up to the the sky, and, in the next picture, return the kits.

Now the evil-looking ones are depicted trapped in little dens. There are many pictures now, depicting many stories Flightpaw knows well: Bluestar and Thistleclaw, Firestar, Tigerstar, and Scourge, Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost. Many more. In each one, the cats who are always depicted as bad or evil, also seem to be doing good things... and behind the good ones, is that black fog.

Every cat that doesn't act normal, that isn't bored, that fights when the fog does something odd, becomes suddenly evil, trapped with the evil ones.

Then there is a large blank section with black marks all over; Flightpaw gets the feeling that a part was wiped off.

Finally, there's a clear depiction of her, surrounded by black fog, sitting amongst her emotionless Clanmates, looking happy.

Flightpaw closes her eyes and wills herself to wake up; instead she is plunged into nonsensical things again.

…

Over the next moon, Flightpaw explores. All the information seems to be in caves. In one, there is an ominous pile of bones. In another, varied battle plans are sketched out on the floor with stones and sticks. In a third, she finds a mass of blackness which pulls her towards it; she knows better than to go through, and leaves.

Flightpaw finds assorted, scary-looking weapons in one cave. In another, it is pitch-black. She feels terrified for some reason, blinded by pain and rage and fear. She leaves that one as fast as she can.

In one cave, she finds a sort of codifier. She spends a long time there, learning to read the symbols on the walls. She then goes back through the other caves. Most have no symbols, but in the cave with the mass of blackness, there were symbols that meant literally: _pain Dark Forest trying cats ten into. _Flightpaw couldn't make sense of it, but decided to stay away.

The more she explores, the more Flightpaw feels she's getting towards some sort of epicenter.

One day, as she heads past the last cave, she finds herself at a waterfall. Then she glances out at the fields beyond it. They're flat; no place to hide a cave. That last one was the final cave.

She's disappointed; all it held was a large round rock, spinning in the air, with the symbol meaning _dirt _carved into the floor beneath it. Flightpaw doesn't know how to explain that, but she knows that there is still something else behind this.

Perhaps... She knows that in the old myths, before they mysteriously disappeared, the Tribe of Rushing Water had a cave behind a waterfall, in which they lived.

Carefully, Flightpaw pulls herself over the rocks and behind the waterfall.

It's some sort of record room; much more detailed than that first cave.

She will spend much time here.

…

The next few days, Flightpaw spends all of her time deciphering the symbols on the walls.

The first record tells of a "Dark Forest Ten Cats Experiment.' After the Dark Forest was defeated, StarClan did not lock them away; they slaughtered them. All but ten: Hawkfrost, Mapleshade, Darkstripe, Sunstone, Breezepelt, Redwillow, Brokenstar, and cats Flightpaw had not heard of but that were named Marshmallow, Antpelt, Leopardstar, and Blossomfall. The last two, apparently, were considered evil for 'trying to stop the tortures and deaths of the evil Dark Forest cats.' Anyways, these cats they locked together in the Dark Forest, to see how long it would take for them to break and turn on each other. For the first week, they were fine, working together to get out. Then Antpelt broke; he began screaming, for hours and hours, days at a time. The others began whispering compromising secrets about each other to the watching pools, clearly hoping to win StarClan's trust and be released. Some more began to scream: Leopardstar, Sunstone, Redwillow, Brokenstar. In the most recent entry in the record, the watching-pools had been eliminated. The prisoners had urinated in some, drunk others. Either way, all were compromised, and StarClan was to hold a meeting about what to do.

The second record tells the same stories as the first cave, in slightly more detail.

The third and final record is titled 'The Story of the Founders' and Flightpaw has just gotten to reading it when she hears noises. She freezes; there is nowhere to hide in this cave.

Then she relaxes. _Even if they did do these things, this is StarClan,_ she told herself. _It's not like they'll torture me._

Two cats march in: Yellowfang and Jayfeather. Yellowfang grabs her by the scruff in a rough manner. "Hey!" Flightpaw yelps. But the two of them drag her away. They feed her a sort of herb and everything goes dark.

…

Flightpaw wakes up but does not open her eyes. She half feels like she is still dreaming.

"...if that doesn't work; should we throw her to the Dark Forest, or the Founders?" a she-cat asks. She sounds distinguished and wise.

Firestar's voice, which Flightpaw remembers from the Prophecy dream all those moons ago, answers, "I should think showing her to the Founders may be our only choice. We needn't have her ally with the rebellious ones in the Dark Forest, especially if they are indeed the Children of the Sun, Moon, and Bestower."

So she is still dreaming. _How can you be knocked out in a dream? _she wonders dazedly.

"Indeed. And should that not break her, I am certain that the Founders will have ideas."

There is a quiet. Flightpaw makes the mistake of believing Firestar and the she-cat have left, and she flutters one eye open. There sit Firestar and a she-cat she recognizes as Bluestar.

"She stirs, Bluestar," Firestar says, turning to his former mentor.

"She does. Let us begin," Bluestar answers.

And once again everything goes dark.

…

This time Flightpaw opens her eyes outright.

Then she wishes she hadn't; long, pointy rocks have been driven through her paws and presumably into the ground; she can't move. Blood is soaked around her. It explains the dull throbbing on each paw that she had attributed to walking so far to the waterfall.

In the corner, in a shadow, is a cat. Flightpaw can't quite see the cat, but their scent tells her it is a tom.

When he steps forward, Flightpaw doesn't recognize him from any of the myths, but she feels scared nonetheless. He holds a long, sharp, jagged rock; Flightpaw realizes she is in the cave of weapons.

He sets down the large rock and with delicacy, takes a squirrel claw and flicks it across her face. Flightpaw feels a stinging pain across her muzzle and a bit of wetness as she begins to bleed.

"You will do as we say and follow the instructions," he says dully.

"Never," Flightpaw hisses. She has put her whole self into this fight; she would give up her life for that.

The tom walks to her side. On her haunches he begins to carve a star into her skin; a sadistic smile flits across his face. Flightpaw grits her teeth and bears it. If she must go through this to wake up and tell the Clans the truth about StarClan, so be it.

"You don't really have a choice," the tom says as he puts wavy lines around the star: the cloud of black from the first cave. "StarClan will always control you, has always controlled you. So you may as well give in."

Flightpaw says nothing.

"The faster you give in, the less pain you have to bear," the tom says, finishing the cloud around the star.

Flightpaw does not say anything, again. If she stays silent, eventually there will be nothing more they can do to her, except kill her. Even then she can scout through their territory, warn the Clans that they are bad.

The tom pauses, on paw poised over one of her legs. Then he brings his paw down with incredible force. Flightpaw swears she can hear her bone crack, then break. She flinches. It feels as though a hot wire is running up from her paw through her leg.

While she's struggling to recover, the tom slams his paw into her face. There will be a bruise, and Flightpaw can already feel it swelling.

"Do you give in now?" the tom says.

"What do you think?" Flightpaw snaps.

In response, he takes one of the larger weapons. Cutting deeply, into Flightpaw's muscle she thinks, he begins to slice away at her back, giving her stripes like a tabby. She flinches and murmurs swear words. After each stripe the tom asks if she's had enough yet, and each time she hisses at him, informing him that she will never join them.

After many bruises and cuts, when Flightpaw knows she'll have scars, the tom steps back. "Fine. I have one last card to play," he says. He picks up a more delicate, curved weapon. "If you don't agree to join us, I'll take your eye."

Flightpaw is sick on the spot. When she's done, she stares at the ground; at the lowest part of the cave, the blood- and throw-up- has congregated around her paws in a reddish, foamy pool. "No," she finally gets out. "D-d-d... don..."

The tom looks pleased for a second.

"I'll never join you," Flightpaw whispers suddenly, remembering her cause. The tom lunges for her, and within seconds, Flightpaw feels another place of full of impossibly terrible pain. One side is black as though she's closed one eye.

Her eye is gone. She can feel the blood dribbling from her socket onto her face.

Then the tom stuffs herbs in her face and Flightpaw feels herself slipping into unconsciousness once more.

…

It-it cannot be. Monsters to terrible to describe. Otherworldly abominations. And there are _four._

"Eldritch Ones," Bluestar says to them.

"Founders," Yellowfang adds.

"This she-kit refuses to join us or follow us. She will not fight for your cause even when we gave her a Prophecy and promised she could be Special. What will we do?" Bluestar asks.

_Consume... consume everything..._ the Founders wail as one, into the minds of every cat they can see. _We must have this Earth...Follow or be punished..._

Flightpaw stares uncomprehendingly at the Founders, the monsters. How can they be real?

"But what will we do?" Bluestar presses.

_Break her... break her and make her join us... _one Founder suggests. The others wail in agreement.

In just a second they could destroy Flightpaw in any way. She's terrified.

"We already tried. She has many scars and bruises and broken _bones_, but _she_ hasn't broken yet," Yellowfang says.

_Break her mind... _the Founders say.

Bluestar and Yellowfang exchange glances. They had not thought of that.

…

Flightpaw wakes in a cave where there are two cats. A she-cat with a fluffy tail, Feathertail. And a tom, her brother Stormfur. Stormfur sits behind her.

"How many cats are here with you, sweetheart?" Feathertail asks.

"Two, you and Stormfur," Flightpaw answers dazedly. She cannot get the image of the Founders out of her mind.

"What?" Feathertail's eyes travel around the cave, sweeping right over Stormpath. "There's only me. How can you have double vision with one eye?"

"But I don't have double vision. He's right there," Flightpaw says.

Feathertail shakes her head. "But he's not, sweetheart."

Flightpaw entertains the notion that Feathertail is telling the truth. She certainly seems nicer than the other StarClan cats she's met, and Stormfur isn't moving or speaking...

But no. It's probably another elaborate ruse.

"Now I'm going to ask you again. How many cats are here with you?" Feathertail says sweetly.

"Two," Flightpaw says.

"I just don't understand how you can be so mistaken," Feathertail says. She frowns. "Are you sure that there are two cats here with you?"

"Y-yes," Flightpaw says. Feathertail seems so concerned.

Feathertail is silent for a while. She looks all around. "But I can't see him," she says gently. "That means he's not real."

"There is two cats. Are. Are two cats," Flightpaw tells Feathertail.

"How many cats are here with you?" Feathertail asks again.

Flightpaw can't help but doubt herself. Doubt all those moons of sneaking around. Perhaps Bluestar and Firestar are well-intended zealots, because Feathertail and Russetfur seem nice enough. Feathertail seems genuinely trying to help her. Maybe there is only one cat.

"I think there are two..." Flightpaw says slowly, uncertainly.

"I think you need to rest for a bit longer, sweetheart, your eye is clearly not okay," Feathertail says.

Flightpaw bites her lip.

"Are you sure there are two cats in here other than you?"

"Well- I, I'm not certain," Flightpaw admits.

Feathertail breathes a sigh of relief. "It looks like your vision is clearing up," she says.

Feathertail is right- Stormfur is indeed fading from view. Perhaps all of StarClan was right. Perhaps Flightpaw should follow the instructions.

"Yes, there's only one now," Flightpaw says.

"Oh, that's good. You're feeling better now, then?" Feathertail says.

"Yes, yes I am," Flightpaw says.

…

When Flightpaw wakes up in ThunderClan, no one asks why she was asleep so long, or about her brand-new scars. And after a while the scars even fade, once Flightpaw stops thinking about them.

Funnily enough, Flightpaw doesn't feel anything anymore. But that's okay, as long as she's doing StarClan's bidding. StarClan is good. So, so good. She can't believe she ever fought against them.

Flightpaw soon earns her warrior name: Flightheart. She leads the Clans away from the lake and to a new place, because the Upheaval, a group of some rogues, chased them out. But a rival Clan pops up, the Clan of a cat named Ravenclaw. He fights, saying StarClan are not wise just because they're dead, that his Clan won't worship them. But Flightheart and her Clans beat them down, and soon Flightheart becomes Flightstar. Even then she feels nothing, but seeing her old StarClan friends like Yellowfang, and Bluestar, and Firestar, and Feathertail, even the tom who accidentally gave her those tabby-like scars when they were play-fighting, is good. Because StarClan is always good.

And Flightstar is secure in the knowledge that when she dies, she will go to StarClan.

**A/N: I _told _you it was dark...**

**Anyways, I will admit this is inspired by The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing (especially the anti-box ending), which is a good horror Let's Play for the game Animal Crossing and a fun and scary read for anyone who's ever heard of the game, let alone played it. I recommend it.**

**Another inspiration is Null, a Warriors fanfic. It's two years old, dead, and the most recent review is a year old, but it shares the premise of this (evil/corrupted StarClan) and manages to make it into a (very nearly) gray vs. gray, extremely interesting story.**

**And if you've ever read the creepypasta 'The Russian Sleep Experiment,' the story of the Dark Forest warriors will probably sound rather familiar to you. It's my favorite creepypasta, and I didn't even realize that it was influencing me until I finished editing this. XD**

**Reviews are appreciated as always! :D**


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